Best Book Contest—You Can Vote!

 

I just found out that my book is on the list for Merrimack Valley Magazine's best book of 2020. You can vote for it: https://www.mvmag.net/2021-mvma-voting/ The books are at the very end so there's a lot of pages to go through to get there. Here's something from the original review by Doug Sparks.

"Calligraphy is a levelheaded look at the artistic process from someone whose relationship with words constantly shifts. It functions both as a crafter’s catalog and as an autobiography, as well as the record of a Merrimack Valley artist whose work spans decades and has remained invigorating, and grows more profound over time."

New Ways to Order New Book

As the first year of Calligraphy: How I Fell In, Out, and In Love Again draws to a close, I continue to explore new ways to get books into the hands, and I hope hearts, of others. The good news is that the more time I spend with the book, the happier I am with it. I have said what I wanted to say and presented it the way I wanted to. This is my first experiment with Print on Demand through amazon. While I think the print quality of the book is excellent, I am less happy with the impersonal nature of ordering through an online giant. To correct that, and to offer signed and inscribed books with personalized bookmarks, I have added new ways to purchase the books.  

BUY THE BOOK---$25.
* from amazon
* from etsy (signed and inscribed copies available)
* from Susan via Paypal or check (signed & inscribed copies available)

RELATED EVENTS
Books are always offered at a reduced price of $20 for in-person sales.
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Society of Scribes Holiday Fair
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 11–3:30 PM
The Brotherhood Synagogue, Community Room
28 Gramercy Park South, New York, NY 

North Shore Artisans Holiday Market
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 13, 5–9:30 PM
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 14, 10 AM–4 PM
Unitarian Church, 26 Pleasant St, Newburyport, MA

Book Trailer and the Trials of Promotion

Phase Two of Calligraphy: How I Fell In, Out, and In Love Again has begun. It's time for my least favorite part—promotion. I was an only child in a supportive family who did everything they could to help me find my way and I credit whatever success I have had to my parents. However, they did not take to self-promotion. Others could say nice things, but a self-compliment would be greeted by a gesture of horn playing and a "Toot, Toot" from my father. I absorbed the message: Don't toot your own horn.  Unfortunately we live in a world where are increasingly being asked to toot away. It was an issue when I started forty years ago and it becomes more pronounced every year. I try to approach it as sharing and appreciate your patience.

Here's the book trailer:

Feel free to join in the sharing. If you buy a book and like it, please share reviews and comments. This is a totally solo project with no publisher or organization behind it. I'm open to suggestions of libraries and museums that might be interested in talks, calligraphy and art groups who might want to review it in their newsletters, etc. Any help you can give is most welcome.

Book Available on Amazon!

Thanks to all who came to the launch at the Newburyport Art Association on Saturday. It was a full house. And even better, a full house of people who listened intently, asked great questions, and bought books. I couldn't have asked for anything better. You can see how much I am smiling despite my somewhat precarious perch in between two chairs in the front row (3rd from the right).

If you missed the launch, you haven't missed the book. It's available on amazon as a paperback and an ebook. I have it set up that if you buy the paperback, you will have an option to download a free ebook after purchase. I think the ebook looks great on a tablet.
  

CALLIGRAPHY: HOW I FELL IN, OUT, AND IN LOVE AGAIN

https://amzn.to/2kiWmFB

An illustrated memoir of a sometimes all-consuming, always challenging, and ultimately freeing relationship with calligraphy over forty years. Susan’s story is about more than how to hold a pen and form letters. It is about growing up and growing older, questioning and slowly finding answers— an inspiring read for artists and non-artists alike.

8.5" x 11", 154 pages, 277 illustrations, full color cover and interior

Get your copy here: https://amzn.to/2kiWmFB

Book Preview-Calligraphy at Home

"After I moved away from calligraphy in my art, it stayed a part of my life. While I didn’t “do calligraphy” for many years, I still used my pens and markers on a regular basis to write recipes, make cards, place cards, and ornaments, send seasonal messages, and create little books to share with friends and family. I continue to do so today."

The chapter on Calligraphy at Home includes a selection of holiday cards as well as birthday cards, tea bags, a little recipe book, and seasonal greetings. Above (clockwise starting on the top left) is a dinner invitation, a place card for Easter dinner of birchbark and a scilla blossom, a greeting for May, an herbal bouquet, and a Christmas ornament.

Calligraphy Memoir Book Launch

BOOK LAUNCH CELEBRATION & SIGNING

SATURDAY,  SEPTEMBER 14, 11:30 AM–1:30 PM 

We're in the final third of 2019 but in some ways, it feels like the year is just beginning for me. Much of the first two-thirds were spent in a state of semi-hibernation writing, designing, and organizing the printing for my new book, Calligraphy: How I Fell In, Out, and In Love Again. It is being published through amazon's KDP and will be available through amazon (selling for $24.99) and at my events (selling for $20). 

If you are in the area, I hope you'll join me at the NAA on the 14th. I'll give a short talk about the book and the role the NAA played in my growth as an artist followed by questions. Then we'll have refreshments and socialize. Writing the book brought home how important it is have fellow travelers on the journey. I hope you'll bring a friend, and maybe make some new ones.

Information about how to order on amazon will be coming soon.

Book Preview-Jenny Hunter Groat and Notan

"In the fall of 1985, I took a weekend workshop in Boston with Jenny Hunter Groat on Notan, the Japanese design principle based on the interaction of dark (no) and light (tan). I had first encountered the concept in a design class with Brenda Lowen-Siegel at the DeCordova Museum School. I loved Jenny’s workshop and I loved Jenny, especially the philosophical depth she brought to the study of calligraphy and design. From her experiences with Zen Buddhism and Jungian analysis, she saw Notan as more than a design principle. It spoke to her of the importance of acknowledging and balancing light and dark, positive and negative, in all aspects of life."

The above paragraph is an excerpt from my forthcoming book Calligraphy: How I Fell In, Out, and In Love Again. Jenny Hunter Groat would be ninety years old today. I post this is her honor. She was such an important figure in my development as an artist.

Click here to download a pdf of the image. It is part of my Words From Susan: Inspiration for Today's World series of free downloads to print and share.

The new book launches on September 14 and will be available from amazon.

Book Preview-Too Soon

Writing Calligraphy: How I Fell In, Out, and In Love Again was an exercise in trust. This is one of many instances where things just fell into place. When I needed an image to go with the following passage, I came across this bookmark I made in 1979. The lettering itself illustrates how much I didn't know and the quote is so appropriate.

I threw myself on the unsuspecting and largely ignorant (of the finer points of calligraphy) public with a combination of outward enthusiasm and inward insecurity. You might think my insecurity lessened as I went on but the opposite was true. As my calligraphy got better, so did my critical skills. I could see flaws that I didn’t know existed the year before. Instead of abating, my insecurity grew. 

Book Preview-Calligraphy is...

From the third chapter of Calligraphy: How I Fell In, Out, and In Love Again, Learning Calligraphy Part 1.

Book Preview: Dabbling Days

From what I know now, I wouldn’t use the word “learn” to describe my early experience with calligraphy. I looked at letters in a book and copied them, but I understood nothing.

from Calligraphy: How I Fell In, Out, and In Love Again which launches on September 14

Calligraphy: How I Fell In, Out, and In Love Again

Calligraphy: How I Fell In, Out, and In Love Again is an illustrated memoir of my forty-year relationship with calligraphy—sometimes all-consuming, always challenging, and ultimately freeing. The story is about more than how to hold a pen and form letters. It is about growing up and growing older, questioning and slowly finding answers.

I've poured my heart and soul into my work and have done the same with this book. It is a personal statement that I have written, designed, and published. The complete book is 143 pages with 277 illustrations.

The book launches in one month, on September 14. I'll be sharing an image or a bit of text each day until then. Some of them will look familiar as the book is based on the forty blog posts I did at the end of last year.

from the introduction:

In the fall of 1978, I was an unemployed English literature major who had spent the past four years teaching swimming for the Boston School Department. I had taken courses in chemistry to prepare for studying nutrition, education to become a special education teacher, and children’s literature because I wanted to open a children’s bookstore. I don’t know that I could have verbalized it at the time, but I wanted more than a job or a career; somewhere deep inside I was seeking a life’s work.